Project cycle management is a key managerial competence that all development workers at the community, country or international levels should acquire and master. The Project Cycle Management approach (PCM) is based on the logical framework and has become an indispensable instrument for all development workers over the years, as well as the main reference for donors, International Organizations, governments and NGOs in the design and implementation of development projects. The PCM approach has moved beyond the tools and techniques and has become a common language used by international development and cooperation partners. As this common language is yet not known by all players, many development and technical cooperation projects are not optimal. The cause of which is a lack of capability in the field of PCM by the professional responsible for the project. This deficiency creates negative impact on the overall project cycle and on achieving its results. Partially designed projects that do not foresee an integrated and realistic monitoring and evaluation framework are often compromised, for example:
Projects don’t achieve expected objectives, or, if they achieve them, it is difficult to establish if the achieved objective is due to the implemented project or to other contextual factors,
The lessons learned from projects are often limited and poorly documented,
The duplication of similar projects is still a regular occurrence and there is often lack of coordination and harmonization among inter-related projects.
Nowadays the identification and communication of a good project idea is not enough to convince donors to financially support an initiative. To mobilize partners support, it is essential to create a well-developed, justified, relevant and persuasive concept through a convincing project document. Managers of development or technical cooperation projects operate in a dynamic environment of uncertainty and change. Good planning and effective monitoring and control of resources, tasks, stakeholders and the project environment is essential to keep the project on the right direction, in the course of success. Therefore collecting and processing the project data, preparing timely progress reports to support the decision-making process is a key function to help in taking the right and appropriate decision to ensure a good project implementation. A project, as opposed to continuous management operations, is a temporary and unique action with a start and an end. These characteristics make a project "experimental”, meaning managers must make a continued effort to learn from the experience that implementing a project represents. For this purpose it is important to evaluate the projects on a regular basis in order to identify the success stories and all elements that need to be improved in the future. Evaluating project is essential to learn from experience in order to improve future projects, to report to partners about the project’s achievements, to demonstrate results and to take the necessary decisions related to the organization’s investments channelled through projects. In view of the above, managers of development and technical assistance projects have to master the project cycle management, its phases, its context and all tools and techniques during the all cycle.
TRAINING OBJECTIVE
The overall training objective is to impart (or reinforce) the necessary competencies to manage the project cycle in accordance with the related tools and techniques defined by the European Union and by the International Organizations working in the field of Technical Cooperation.
CONTENT
Introduction
Project management concepts and definitions
The project cycle
The logical framework approach
Migration projects and local development
Project design
Stakeholders and target groups analysis
Problem tree (causes and effects)
Project identification
Objectives tree
Alternative analysis
Selection of the project intervention model
Project formulation
Logical framework matrix
Intervention model and results chain (inputs, activities, results, specific objectives and overall objectives)
Critical assumptions and risks
Performance indicators and means of verification
Organisation and project operational planning
Structuring the project organisation (typical models)
Project Management Unit
Operational planning process
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Project sequencing and scheduling
Resources allocation and responsibility matrix
Planning using Ms Project 2010
Project Monitoring and evaluation
Monitoring and evaluation functions : project monitoring, evaluation and audit
Evaluation-control: baseline, data collection and analysis
Progress and communication reporting
Project evaluation : evaluation principles, strategies and criteria
PARTNERS
1. ACP MIGRATION, Project Implementing Agency http://acpmigration.org/ ACP Migration supports the ACP States in improving understand and management of migratory flows. ACP Migration focuses on migration within the ACP region, which is comprised of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. The direct beneficiaries of ACP Migrations work are national institutions, regional organisations and civil society organisations. The indirect beneficiaries are primarily the migrants themselves and the different actors participating in the consultation process on “migration and development”.
2. ACP-EU, Donor ACP Migration is an ACP Group programme financed by the European Development Fund.
3. ITC-ILO, Training Provider The International Training Centre of the ILO is the training arm of the ILO. The Centre runs training, learning and capacity development services for governments, employers' organizations, workers' organizations and other national and international partners in support of Decent Work and sustainable development.
If you are a participating in this training programme please click on the following link to complete the pre-training survey →
BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
Project cycle management is a key managerial competence that all development workers at the community, country or international levels should acquire and master. The Project Cycle Management approach (PCM) is based on the logical framework and has become an indispensable instrument for all development workers over the years, as well as the main reference for donors, International Organizations, governments and NGOs in the design and implementation of development projects. The PCM approach has moved beyond the tools and techniques and has become a common language used by international development and cooperation partners.
As this common language is yet not known by all players, many development and technical cooperation projects are not optimal. The cause of which is a lack of capability in the field of PCM by the professional responsible for the project. This deficiency creates negative impact on the overall project cycle and on achieving its results.
Partially designed projects that do not foresee an integrated and realistic monitoring and evaluation framework are often compromised, for example:
Nowadays the identification and communication of a good project idea is not enough to convince donors to financially support an initiative. To mobilize partners support, it is essential to create a well-developed, justified, relevant and persuasive concept through a convincing project document.
Managers of development or technical cooperation projects operate in a dynamic environment of uncertainty and change. Good planning and effective monitoring and control of resources, tasks, stakeholders and the project environment is essential to keep the project on the right direction, in the course of success. Therefore collecting and processing the project data, preparing timely progress reports to support the decision-making process is a key function to help in taking the right and appropriate decision to ensure a good project implementation.
A project, as opposed to continuous management operations, is a temporary and unique action with a start and an end. These characteristics make a project "experimental”, meaning managers must make a continued effort to learn from the experience that implementing a project represents. For this purpose it is important to evaluate the projects on a regular basis in order to identify the success stories and all elements that need to be improved in the future. Evaluating project is essential to learn from experience in order to improve future projects, to report to partners about the project’s achievements, to demonstrate results and to take the necessary decisions related to the organization’s investments channelled through projects.
In view of the above, managers of development and technical assistance projects have to master the project cycle management, its phases, its context and all tools and techniques during the all cycle.
TRAINING OBJECTIVE
The overall training objective is to impart (or reinforce) the necessary competencies to manage the project cycle in accordance with the related tools and techniques defined by the European Union and by the International Organizations working in the field of Technical Cooperation.
CONTENT
Introduction
Project design
Project identification
Project formulation
Organisation and project operational planning
Project Monitoring and evaluation
PARTNERS
1. ACP MIGRATION, Project Implementing Agency http://acpmigration.org/
ACP Migration supports the ACP States in improving understand and management of migratory flows. ACP Migration focuses on migration within the ACP region, which is comprised of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. The direct beneficiaries of ACP Migrations work are national institutions, regional organisations and civil society organisations. The indirect beneficiaries are primarily the migrants themselves and the different actors participating in the consultation process on “migration and development”.
2. ACP-EU, Donor
ACP Migration is an ACP Group programme financed by the European Development Fund.
3. ITC-ILO, Training Provider
The International Training Centre of the ILO is the training arm of the ILO. The Centre runs training, learning and capacity development services for governments, employers' organizations, workers' organizations and other national and international partners in support of Decent Work and sustainable development.
If you are a participating in this training programme please click on the following link to complete the pre-training survey →